We are very pleased to present you the latest issue of "Polish Political Science Yearbook" (2015, Vol. 44). We hope that the broad spectrum of the problems discussed will be for you a useful source of inspiration and knowledge. Articles published in this issue elaborate the extremely diverse topics – from political theory and problems in bilateral and multilateral relations to different questions in various policy areas.

In article, author pay attention to the potential and scope of the impact of new forms of communication on the form and content of theoretical research. In principle, such an effect can be seen in two related, but different dimensions of analysis. In the first place it concerns the scope of the political theory, which is enriched with new areas and issues revealing previously unknown or not perceived problems, phenomena and processes that guide the interests of contemporary researchers. On the other hand, global mass communication techniques significantly shape, and thus change the existing forms of theoretical discourse and the structure of the theory itself. These changes in the perspective of plurality and decentralization of theoretical discourse subjects, as well as the emergence of new research areas which aspire to the status of scientific discipline, gain innovative importance especially from the point of view of the attempts to achieve meta-synthetic accumulation of social knowledge.

The problem of justice, one of the key problems of contemporary political philosophy, is reconsidered in the light of a new paradigm: Otfried Höffe’s theory of transcendental exchange. The main research question is how this theory influences our understanding of the ways of formation of just moral and legal grounds in contemporary society. In order to understand justice adequately, it is important to regard it as personal responsibility, deeply related to attitudes of solidarity and recognition. There is an attempt to fuse moral and material grounds of social existence in order to overcome social injustice. Freedom and justice are rooted in the living world and are based on formal norms and procedures of morality and law. This gives us methodological grounds for understanding Höffe’s philosophy of political justice, which regards freedom and justice as the main conditions of human existence.

The idea of European federation keeps recurring in politicians' and intellectuals' discourses on the future of the European Union. The logic of global rivalry of “large territories” favors this in particular, as it somehow forces Europe’s states to enter into a tighter integration if they want to realize their politics. The biggest challenge which the Union faces is the problem of leadership, understood both in the context of internal policy and relationally towards the surrounding. The problem, however, is the diversity of the member states and the unrelenting tension between particular concern about a national interest and European universalism. European federation sensu stricto, just because of this diversity has still been a utopian project. The future of the European Union most probably lies in a new intermediate model, as unique as the European Commonwealths used to be in the 1950s.

The article is devoted to the political and legal analysis of integration processes in the post-Soviet states – Russia, Kazakhstan and Belarus. It reviews the activities of the Customs Union and its economic and political expediency, as well as the creation and functioning of the Eurasian Economic Union. The author has revealed the reasons for the ineffectiveness of the EAEC activities and proposed a number of legal, political and economic measures to improve it. The paper provides examples of internal economic and political contradictions of the Eurasian Economic Union and offers a legal mechanism to resolve them, and further regulation on the basis of creating a single legal space.

The establishment of the PRC opened the new chapter in the Sino–Soviet/Russian relations. For many years the existence of the problem of the common border was not openly expressed. In 1957 the first announcements about the territorial disputes between USSR and PRC were issued in China. And in 1960 Zhou Enlai stated that there were insignificant disrepancies in the Russian and Chinese maps, very easy to solve. Over the next nearly 30 years the problem of determination of the border has become a victim of tense and hostile Soviet-Chinese relations and unproductive talks. Gorbachev's rise to power in the Kremlin enabled to negotiate a solution to the Soviet–Chinese border problem. And consequently to sign “The agreement on the eastern section of the Sino-Soviet state border” on May 16, 1991. The agreement on the western section of the border was signed on September 3, 1994. The demarcation of the western section of the border was finished by Joint Russian–Chinese Demarcation Commission on September 10, 1998. After six years of negotiations on October 14, 2004 the Complementary Agreement on the Eastern Section of the China–Russia Boundary was signed in Beijing. On its basis the Russian side ceded the whole of Tarabarov island (ch. Yinlongdao), half of Bolshoy Ussuriyski (ch. Heixiazidao) and half of Bolshoy (ch. Abagaitu) island. Another halves of Bolshoy Ussuriyski and Bolshoy islands were kept by Russia. Both sides shared disputed territory almost equally. The ceremony of installation of the border landmarks between Russia and China on Bolshoy Ussuriyski island (on October 14, 2008) finished the long process of demarcation of the Russian–Chinese border.

Regardless of the role that is attributed largely to the traditional attitude of Switzerland on bilateral relations and the trend of still continuing the support of the conduct of international design policies, one still cannot ignore the importance of the part played by the participation of both countries in international organizations. In the face of the current progressive opacity and complexity of the global situation, which not only makes it impossible to carry out the policy of isolationism, but also significantly reduces the effects of bilateral policy, an increase in the role of this plane has become increasingly evident in many contexts Polish–Swiss relations.

Sports boycott is one of the most important dimension of sport colliding with politics. The subject of the article is the boycott of the Los Angeles Olympic Games in 1984, one of the most spectacular boycotts, which was conducted by communist countries. It is widely recognized, that Los Angeles Olympics were boycotted as a result of a similar action by Western countries towards Moscow Olympics in 1980. However, evidence proves that there was no decision concerning communist boycott of Los Angeles Olympics until a few months before the Games. Preparations to the Olympics were on their way, but unexpected change of Soviet leader resulted in the boycott. Safety reasons were the declared reason for the boycott of the Soviet Union and 13 other communist countries. Nevertheless, it is evident that the real reasons were connected with the political game of USSR. The probable actual aims were the desire to hit the first ever privately financed Olympic Games and to make it harder for American president Ronald Raegan to be reelected. Naturally, at least partly it was also a matter of revenge for boycotting the Moscow Games.

The article presents basic relations which happen among Europeanization and the public politics on the example of the politics of the cohesion. The author makes the broad exploration objective concepts and also postulates determined conclusions and recommendations.

The paper presents results of the experimental study on the government's remembrance policy, attitudes towards it, and the influence of remembrance narratives. It discusses individual differences of participants on three different grounds: (1) interest in history or politics, and level of historical knowledge, (2) features of cognitive motivation measured by the need for closure questionnaire: preference of order, desire for predictability, discomfort with ambiguity, closed-mindedness and decisiveness, and (3) response to the presented narrative, including inspired emotions and an assessment of a story. Collected data and research observations offer an interesting and valuable insight into relationships between various factors and citizen's support for the remembrance policy. They also lead the team to formulate three conclusions which may be used to develop theoretical understandings of this aspect of politics within political science and related disciplines.

In reflection summary it can be stated that social policy is both a possibility and a barrier in the development of a new corporate culture–civilization, referred to as globalization. Main forces shaping the new global reality, and the face of social policy are: technical and scientific progress, international laws and education focused on raising awareness of global change. Quick pace of civilization reveals an inability to adapt to a wide range of society the realities of the world of IT and information, and consequently the phenomenon of exclusion and widening of social pathologies. The image shaping social policy sets out the special role of participatory unit. The implementation of the project of European integration reveals a large gap between the assumptions and practice of social life. Standards of social policy remain in the realm of vision, a declaration of hope, the boundaries between the real world and virtual information and disinformation and manipulation. An important role in this regard play the media, which in its action shall submit to the effectiveness of the delivering authentic information about contemporary social realities and social policy pursued in its various structural dimensions.

The following text shortly outlines some basics terms and difficulties connected with social rehabilitation term of some people who had a staying in the prison; beginning from the short explanation of the term, through highlighting the characteristic of reintegration process, to main problems which a person has when comes back to the society and also some ways of solving them. 

The article presents an analysis of the role of demos in power relations in democratic states. The author of the text postulates the need for contemporary political science research to expand its analyses beyond formal structures of political institutions and include in its scope also features of demos – the “cultural factor” to better understand the functioning and chances for success of democracy in different states. 

Administration is a very important mechanism for implementing tasks of the state, which consists of various types of bodies and institutions. As a collection of mechanisms it is responsible for the practical implementation of the functions of the state. This means that the way the administration is organized, especially its functioning, affects the quality of the performed tasks and translates into the image of the state in the eyes of the citizens. Dysfunctional administrative apparatus of the state is unable to solve problems and social needs, satisfy the aspirations and can even inhibit the development of civilization and culture of entire societies. In modern democracies, the administration carries out not only those tasks that are part of the classic catalog of its functions, but also fulfills the additional responsibilities of membership in supra and international structures that shape the contemporary social order. Such various range of tasks clearly shows that the meaning of the administration existence is undertaking relevant organizational, managerial and planning actions. Administrative apparatus is to be helpful in solving social problems and to serve the public – Lat. administrare. In the context of the changes and transformations of contemporary states and societies that are taking place under the influence of various factors (globalization, regionalization, integration processes, economic crises, armed conflicts), the right to good administration begins to be an issue of a particular importance. Nowadays, it is not only a fundamental right of every citizen and the principle of European administrative law, but, above all, it becomes a condition for efficient satisfaction of still growing needs and aspirations of individuals, social groups and whole societies. 

Urban movements are nowadays a frequent example of civic activity. They are becoming an inseparable element of both contemporary democracy as well as local governments. Taking into consideration the fact of growing popularity of this kind of civic activity it is worth to analyze the specifics of this phenomena and possible future impact on local governments' policy. The aim of this article is to examine the urban movements' phenomena and their actual possible influence on local governments' policy directions. 

The principle of subsidiarity not only has formed many of provisions in the act on Public Benefit and Volunteer Work (particularly those related to social consultations and transferring of public tasks), but is also a directive forming the cooperative habits between the public and non-public sectors. This is a matter of great importance taking into account that the subsidiarity in Poland is not effectively implemented as it could be because of limited autonomy of the self–government and frequently occurring interference of the State. Unfortunately it results in limiting of ability to decide on the type and methods of performing tasks. In addition, financial resources usually are not sufficient. It would be desirable to maintain and develop this course because about 61% of the polish society finds the third sector more effective than the public one. More and more often (43%) the contribution of the non-governmental organisations on solution of local problems is perceived, although still near the half of respondents (48%) doubt that they would have an important impact on the solution of important social problems. There are also real concerns about corruption, other law abuses, or giving priority to private interest instead of communal one

It is not surprising that subsidiarity is very often discussed with autonomy and federation (equally multidimensional concepts, similarly discussed in science). It is clearly evident taking into account, for example, results of analysis of the key words (tags) in scientific publications. The European Union has significantly contributed in popularizing of the concept so it is no surprise that strongly linked with EU's problems has become a central point of the discussion of its organizational structure and internal relationships between forming elements. It is difficult to imagine analysis of the conditions for implementing of subsidiarity in Germany without prior presentation of the state political system's solutions. Studying the structure and functioning of public administration enables to identify the place and role of the local government, to measure degree of independence of the local authority as a central point of discussion in relation to the subsidiarity.

Based on analysis of the research material shown Council of Ministers actions for the implementation of the project for the construction of the LNG terminal. The purpose of the article was to obtain answers to the following research questions: What are the reasons of delaying the opening of the LNG terminal in Świnoujście? In what extent the activities of the gas terminal in Świnoujście enhance the Polish energy security? After the analysis, it was found that there are several reasons for not giving to use LNG terminal in Świnoujście. One of them was and is the lack of involvement of the Polish government in this investment. Poland is still dependent on Russian natural gas. Activity of LNG terminal in Świnoujście would increase gas safety of Poland and limit its dependence on the Russian Federation.

In recent years, the main macroeconomic problem of Turkey is current deficits. In order to realize sustainable growth, the balance of payment should be kept under control. This control system is directly depends on minimization of current deficits. One of the main reasons of Turkey's current account deficits is energy imports. By applying the Johansen co–integrated analysis, this paper aims to identify the relationship between energy consumption and economic growth by using the data set between the years 1984–2012 with reference to VAR (Vector Auto Regression). Furthermore, unit root test was applied to the data which is the traditional unit root tests ADF (Augmented Dickey Fuller), PP (Phillip–Perron) and KPSS (Kwiatkowski–Phillips–Schmidt–Shin) and taking into account the structural break test was performed Zivot–Andrews. In addition to examining the long–term relationship between the two variables, taking into account the structural break in the cointegration test Engle–Granger and taking into account the structural break Hatemi–J cointegration test were applied. According to the results of the analysis, we reached that there is a relationship between energy consumption and economic growth.

II Asian Congress took place on 21st and 22nd of May, 2015. It was the largest event of its kind in Europe. Once again, it was a great opportunity to meet representatives of science, business and politics who deal with Asian affairs daily. The event appeared to be so spectacular that it was impossible to organize it in one place. Therefore, many panels were held simultaneously in the Kuiavian-Pomeranian Voivodeship Marshall’s Office building, Torun City Council’s building and the Modern Art Centre „Signs of Time”. The event management of this magnitude would not be possible if not for the professional and efficient coordination led by Professor Joanna Marszałek-Kawa and a number of cooperating institutions, such as Asia-Pacific Society, KuiavianPomeranian Voivodeship Marshall’s Office, Torun City Council, and Professor Czesław Mojsiewicz Fund for International Cooperation Support, Eastern Studies Center, Political Science and International Studies Division of NCU.

The Senate of the Republic of Poland hosted another seminar in a  series of Polish-Kazakh seminars. These seminars are an effect of the cooperation of Polish Senate, including the Senate Legislative Committee run by Senator Doctor Piotr Zientarski and the Embassy of the Republic of Kazakhstan in Poland headed by Ambassador Yerik Utembayev. These seminars serve the purpose of mutual closing and getting to know of the representatives of both countries’ parliamentary, scientific and cultural environments. The leading subjects of the June seminar were the issues of deportation of Polish people to Kazakhstan under Stalin rule and the relations of the Kazakh state with European countries – especially with Poland – in Middle Ages. In the seminar participated among others Vice Director of the Eastern Department Ministry of Foreign Affairs Mr Zdzisław Raczyński, Head for the Senate Legislative Committee and Deputy Head for Kazakh-Polish Parliamentary Group Dr Piotr Zientarski, Ambassador of the Republic of Kazakhstan in Poland Mr Yerik Utembayev, Head for the Department of Legal Systems and Human Rights of Zielona Góra University Faculty of Law and Administration Professor Andrzej Bisztyga, Head for the Department of Public Law, Human Rights and European Law of the University of Social Sciences and Humanities Faculty of Law and Administration and President of the Asia-Pacific Society Doctor Adam Marszałek. The active participants of the seminar were Doctor Władysław Sokołowski, former Ambassador of the Republic of Poland in Kazakhstan and Professor Andrzej Wierzbicki of Warsaw University. The seminar was attended by numerous Members of Parliament and representatives of various academic centres.

The book by Łukasz Jureńczyk entitled: „The war against the Taliban and Al-Qaeda. Afghanistan in the years 1994–2012” (original title: Wojna z talibami i Al-Kaidą. Afganistan w latach 1994–2012) presents a broad spectrum of actions that have been taken by the international community and local activists, who set themselves the goal of overthrowing the Taliban groups in Afghanistan and combat the world’s most dangerous terrorist organization – Al-Qaeda. The basis for author’s dissertation was the situation in the country since the seizure of power by Al-Qaeda through a period of keeping it, until the most recent period. Ł. Jureńczyk took into account cultural contexts, the international situation, and the differences in the exercise of power by the terrorist organization and the socioeconomic outline. The reviewed publication was released by Scientific Publishing ‘GRADO’ in Toruń in 2013 and partially funded by the Ministry of Science and Higher Education. The book consists of 5 chapters – ‘The Taliban road to power’, ‘The Taliban regime’, ‘The causes of the war against the Taliban and Al-Qaeda’, ‘The Taliban war with AlQaeda” and ‘The attempt to democratize Afghanistan’.

The last presidential elections gave rise numerous questions and doubts – particularly in the scientific and media environments – regarding the conditions for electoral behaviours in Poles, as signalled by the results achieved by particular candidates. The media discourse abounded in more or less definite statements regarding voter turnout data for particular population groups, the destabilization of the electorate’s political preferences and the phenomenon of the transfer of votes in between the supporters of particular candidates, both in the historical approach and in the course of the election campaign. The intensity and temperature of these discussions were indicative of the fact how poorly this area is penetrated empirically.

There are still a  lot of things to be told about the history of Polish – Turkish relations. The preparations for the 600th anniversary of the establishment of diplomatic relations between Poland and Turkey were the opportunity to fill blank spaces in this sphere. The book lays the ground and paves the way for further more detailed and illuminating research. The book is a  compilation of articles written by scholars, politicians and other experts from Poland and Turkey. The three editors, who are very knowledgeable in this topic, have jointly prepared a comparative analysis of Turkey and the EU. There are eight separate articles in the book. They put emphasis on the European Union and Turkey with regard to issues of the Middle East.